Review Summary: The latest album from Legion Of The Damned, while okay for what it is, fails to stand out in any way due to a lack of compelling instrumentation, and a rehashed sound that was done better on their 2014 album ‘’Ravenous Plague’’.
Album Background
Legion Of The Damned are a Thrash/Death Metal band from The Netherlands, that have actually existed in two different incarnations. They were originally formed in 1992 under the name Occult, and had a female vocalist, which is quite cool for a Thrash Metal band of that time! They broke up in 2006, and quickly reformed under the name Legion Of The Damned, with a new singer named Maurice Swinkels.
In preparation for this review, I listened to most of their previous album ‘’Ravenous Plague’’, and I thought it was pretty good, although I didn’t listen to it multiple times so my opinion isn’t extremely detailed. The thing I liked most about that album is the brooding tone, as well as the vocalist who reminds me of Cronos from the band Venom. His vocals have a very extreme quality to them, sounding brutal and destructive without resorting to full on death growls.
So I went into this album with some decent expectations, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away, but I was expecting to have a pretty decent album to start off the year. Unfortunately, they didn’t even live up to those expectations. Let’s find out why.
Overall Sound And Tone
The sound of this album is actually the first big problem I had with it. While it retains the dark thrash sound of the previous album, it feels less like a continuation of that sound, and more like a rehash. That in turn, causes the album to feel less interesting as a result.
The guitars on this album sound pretty good however, and the vocals contribute to the overall ominous sound of the album, but like I said, it was done better on the previous release.
Another problem I want to mention briefly, is the fact that a lot of these songs sound the same, which was actually a problem that I had with ‘’Ravenous Plague’’. It makes these songs very hard to distinguish from one another, and the fact that there aren’t a lot of interesting riffs or solos that stick out really hurts the album when it’s the same guitar tone throughout the entire 46 minute project. It makes the album pretty tedious to sit through as a result.
Lyrical Content
The lyrics on this album actually don’t give me a lot to talk about. It’s basically the same stuff that we have gotten on so many thrash albums in the past, including the previous LOTD album. It talks about occult and occasionally satanic themes, but it’s something I have seen done much better by much more legendary bands in the genre, such as Slayer. It’s not poorly written, it just doesn’t stand out.
Production/Instrumentation
The overall instrumentation on this album is your standard thrash affair. Fast, Hardcore Punk style riffs with the technical efficiency of Heavy Metal. The biggest problem with it though, is the aforementioned lack of riffs or solos that stick with you. This is made even more unforgivable than usual because of a certain detail that i’ve failed to mention up to this point, and that’s the fact that their previous album ‘’Ravenous Plague’’, came out in 2014! You think after 5 years they would be able to craft some really memorable songs, but they don’t, and for a band that’s been around as long as they have, that’s just inexcusable.
Track List Summary
Despite the fact that most of these songs don’t stand out, there is one song here that I think is great, and that’s the second track ‘’Nocturnal Commando’’. This is the song most reminiscent of the better tracks off of ''Ravenous Plague'', as Swinkels is barking out the lines with such efficiency. To be fair, that is something he does on most of the tracks on this album, but here it actually feels compelling and interesting.
Unfortunately, there really isn’t any other songs that stand out as a whole. The intro to ‘’Palace Of Sin’’ is pretty good, and when I first heard it, I immediately thought that it would be a great intro to mosh to. The song doesn’t really progress past that however, and while ‘’Shadow Realm Of The Demonic Mind’’ has a piano intro that helps to break up the monotony, it goes back into the same formula once the guitars kick in.
The opening track ‘’The Widow’s Breed’’ has some of the best playing on the entire album, even if the lyrics are not all that captivating. On the other hand, ‘’Charnel Confession’’ and ‘’Slaves Of The Southern Cross’’ both have choruses that are really not that great, with the latter’s being pretty repetitive (and not in a good way). It leaves them handicapped when you compare them to much better songs like ‘’Nocturnal Commando’’.
One more thing I want to mention, is that a lot of these songs seem to end pretty abruptly, mainly due to the fact that a lot of their outro’s are usually just repetition of a previous part of the song. It leaves you surprised because you weren’t expecting the song to end right there.
Wrap Up
So overall, this album was not only somewhat disappointing, but it was just mediocre a lot of the time. It did nothing to stand out, not only compared to other thrash albums, not only compared to their previous album, but most of the songs didn’t even stand out from one another.
I know I brought up their previous release a lot throughout this review, but the reason I did so was because it felt like a less interesting version of ‘’Ravenous Plague’’. And when you add in the fact that they took 5 years to make this thing, that’s probably why i’m going to give it the score that it’s about to get.
If you’re a fan of Thrash Metal and you just need something to tide you over until the new album from Testament comes out, then you might enjoy this, but I would recommend ‘’Ravenous Plague’’ over this album. But if you’re looking for a really great thrash album to start off 2019 like I was, then I have to say you’ll be better off waiting until the new Testament comes out, because this album just didn’t get the job done, End of story.
Final Score- 2.5/5
Favorites- Nocturnal Commando
Least Favorites- Charnel Confession
